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Last Friends Jane Gardam

Last Friends By Jane Gardam

Last Friends by Jane Gardam


$15.99
Condition - Very Good
5 in stock

Summary

The third novel in the Old Filth trilogy

Last Friends Summary

Last Friends: From the Orange Prize shortlisted author by Jane Gardam

'It's a cliche to compare novelists to Jane Austen, but in the case of Jane Gardam it happens to be true. Her diamond-like prose, her understanding of the human heart, her formal inventiveness and her sense of what it is to be alive - young, old, lonely, in love - never fades' Amanda Craig

'Her work, like Sylvia Townsend Warner's, has that appealing combination of elegance, erudition and flinty wit' Patrick Gale

'Sharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny, she is one of our very finest writers' Hilary Mantel

Shortlisted for the 2014 Folio Prize.

Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat told with bristling tenderness and black humour the stories of that Titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Old Filth QC, and his clever, misunderstood wife Betty. Last Friends, the final volume of this trilogy, picks up with Terence Veneering, Filth's great rival in work and - though it was never spoken of - in love.

Veneering's were not the usual beginnings of an establishment silk: the son of a Russian acrobat marooned in northeast England and a devoted local girl, he escapes the war to emerge in the Far East as a man of panache, success and fame. But, always, at the stuffy English Bar he is treated with suspicion: where did this blond, louche, brilliant Slav come from?

Veneering, Filth and their friends tell a tale of love, friendship, grace, the bittersweet experiences of a now-forgotten Empire and the disappointments and consolations of age.

Last Friends Reviews

Sharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny, she is one of our very finest writers * Hilary Mantel *
An ambitious and complex portrait of extraordinary times * Guardian *
This is as mordantly precise and moving a novel as you will find anywhere * Daily Telegraph *
She is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection * Washington Post *
Last Friends is evocative, elegiac, and shaded in autumnal tones, as suits the final volume in a trilogy. Like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, the Old Filth trilogy restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk . . . the story (and the author) will endure * Boston Globe *
Her effortless command of character and narrative sweeps you right along...Among other things, she provides an unsentimental but oddly hopeful vision of old age * New York Times *
The satisfying conclusion to Gardam's Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death * New Yorker *
[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying * Los Angeles Review of Books *
If Rudyard Kipling was the laureate of the British Empire, then Jane Gardam is surely the closest thing we have to a laureate of its demise . . . Spanning nearly a century, the three novels offer a compelling, finely nuanced tableau of the end of an era and the passing of the generation that sustained it. Part of the genius of each successive book is that it does not continue the story so much as rework it from a different angle. * Times Literary Supplement *

It's hard...not to be charmed by a writer with Gardam's substantial gifts

* New York Times Book Review *
She is a brilliant writer. Her prose sparkles with wit, compassion and humor. She keeps us entertained, and she keeps us guessing. Be thankful for her books. Be thankful for this trilogy, which is ultimately an elegy, created with deep affection * Washington Post *
An ambitious and complex portrait of extraordinary times * Guardian *
Last Friends is evocative, elegiac, and shaded in autumnal tones, as suits the final volume in a trilogy. Like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, the Old Filth trilogy restores us to an era rich in spectacle and bristling with insinuation and intrigue. Vivid, spacious, superbly witty, and refreshingly brisk...the story (and the author) will endure * Boston Globe *
Her effortless command of character and narrative sweeps you right along...Among other things, she provides an unsentimental but oddly hopeful vision of old age * New York Times *
The satisfying conclusion to Gardam's Old Filth trilogy offers exquisite prose, wry humor, and keen insights into aging and death * New Yorker *
[Gardam] is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying * Los Angeles Review of Books *
If Rudyard Kipling was the laureate of the British Empire, then Jane Gardam is surely the closest thing we have to a laureate of its demise...Spanning nearly a century, the three novels offer a compelling, finely nuanced tableau of the end of an era and the passing of the generation that sustained it. Part of the genius of each successive book is that it does not continue the story so much as rework it from a different angle. * Times Literary Supplement *
Sharp, humane, generous and wonderfully funny, she is one of our very finest writers -- Hilary Mantel
This is as mordantly precise and moving a novel as you will find anywhere * Daily Telegraph *

About Jane Gardam

Jane Gardam has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime's contribution to the enjoyment of literature; has twice won a Whitbread Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She was awarded an OBE in January 2009.

Additional information

GOR005688516
9780349000169
0349000166
Last Friends: From the Orange Prize shortlisted author by Jane Gardam
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Little, Brown Book Group
2014-02-18
256
Short-listed for Folio Prize 2014 (UK)
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Last Friends